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The Fallujah vet knew nothing about wine - or growing grapes, for that matter - but a friend had a few acres in California and he thought he could make a go of it.

And so a small part of California's wine country is home to Valor Winery - a vineyard unique in that all the staff, like Laine, are veterans, and all the profits go to causes that help former soldiers.

The grape field is their office and "where we find our therapy," he says.

Laine's core team now includes two other veterans, co-owner Fara Barnes and lead sales representative Frank Cassara.

When the winery was founded in 2011, Laine couldn't afford more employees but took on former soldiers as volunteers.

It now employs some 50 vets, ranging from soldiers who served in the Korean War to some involved in the recent conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, all hired on as independent contractors in roles throughout the company.

They come from all branches of the U.S. Armed Forces and, depending on their military experience, work in roles ranging from sales to caring for the vineyards.

"Obviously we can't take a grunt and put him behind the bar," Laine says.

The winery now produces six wines - three red, three white - with its Sauvignon Blanc and Zinfandel each picking up a local wine country award.

"As far as the agriculture and wine side - it's simple," Laine says, noting there are "tried and true" winemaking methods developed over hundreds of years. The operation also recently expanded to include a brew house - Uncle Sam's Misguided Brewery - featuring its own craft beers made with homegrown hops.

But Valor Winery doesn't just give jobs to former soldiers.

Half the sale of each bottle goes to supporting a range of rehabilitation programs for wounded veterans, like wilderness hunting and fishing rehab trips they run in California and Texas - the site of a planned helicopter wild boar hunt.

While Valor Winery is doing well locally, Barnes says they want to take a share of the national market - no easy task.

Wine is "a cut-throat business," the U.S. Air Force and Air National Guard veteran admits.

That's why they opened the craft brewery. And now the team is angling for a chance to appear on the business reality show Shark Tank.

A winery that supports veterans is not completely without precedent.

In Provence, the French Foreign Legion runs a 40-acre vineyard staffed by wounded soldiers, and established California winemaker Murphy-Goode sells Homefront Red (a Syrah, Merlot, Petit Sirah and Zinfandel blend) with a portion of sales going to Operation Homefront, a non-profit that supports military families.

But Barnes said she hasn't heard of any business assisting veterans in a more global way, creating what she describes as a "sustainable support system for veterans."

There are 2.8 million veterans in the United States who served in post-9/11 conflicts. Their unemployment rate was 9% in 2013, higher than the U.S. average. Twenty-nine percent of all modern-day vets reported some type of service-related injury. And 16% of the American homeless population is veterans.